Business Continuity Overview

A critical element of a comprehensive Business Operations Plan is a well-understood and practical Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Development of a BCP begins with the completion of a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) which provides a detailed visualization and analysis of the Key Business Functions (KBFs) involved in feedyard operations such as: acquisition of livestock and feed, transportation of animals, animal health, and other key business related functions. A process flow chart that identifies how those various functions interact is very useful in the development of a BCP. Together, the BIA and process flow chart provide a clear understanding of which KBFs are the most critical to business continuity. An effective way to assess function criticality is first, to determine which functions when disrupted are time-critical, second, which of them when disrupted will most impact the overall business operation.

The Business Continuity Planning Process figure below, further describes each step of the planning process. An industry standard BIA and RA (steps 1 and 2), are provided and should be reviewed. The user may choose to go directly to Step #3 or modify the BIA and RA to meet their unique operational requirements.

Business Continuity Planning Process